Speaking of iridescence, check out this Black-billed Magpie showing off its blues. And then I caught it hoping up to the burned out log showing off its impressive color pattern of white, blue, and black.

A fellow Utah birder/photographer joined me for my lunch-hour walk at my patch. He is a much more skilled photographer than I and has a bigger lens too. He was taking images of this Magpie at the same time. I'll post a link to his photos if he puts them online.

Keeping with the theme of iridescence, check out that Mallard head!

We saw this Canada Goose swimming over a hundred yards this way...kind of like it was hiding or like it was sneaking up on something? Why was it doing that?

Nice shots! I've witnessed that Canada Goose behavior, too, and I've always thought it was a "heightened alert" posture of some sort. I have no idea if they're really trying to be stealthy or hidden, or if it's simply a posture that conveys something to another individual, like "I'm coming to get you . . . ". From what I've seen, the end result is often a bird flapping or diving underwater to get away from the seemingly-territorial goose, which may be an actual area or a female goose.

I haven't found anything that explicitly states what that posture/behavior means, but surely someone has studied it.

Very cool to have quail as a common bird, especially when they visit your feeder! I always love watching them when I make it out west.-Mike

Yes indeed, each bird is so very beautiful. Wonderful images of a variety of feathered friends. Love the black-billed Magpie, a bird we don't get to see here in Chicago. Always a joy to visit your blog!

@Kelly @Chris - good point - birds common locally may often be a treat for folks who don't live there. I remember being so excited seeing Blue Jays, Tufted Titmouse, and Carolina Wrens in the east because we don't get them in the west.

@Cynthia & @Julie G. - Thanks for the nice comment!

@Lauren - I like you comment about photographing California Gulls. I like photographing Robins, even though they are abundant and common.

@noflickster - I too have seen Canada Geese go into that position when ready to attack another goose, but there were no other geese around when this guy was acting like this. Interesting!

Copyright Notice

Unless otherwise noted all images are copyrighted by the author of the post and they retain all rights to their images. Do not download, copy, reproduce or distribute the images posted on these pages (this site) without the permission of the owner of the photo.